He's A Pretty Good Man If You Ask Me From Album I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again
He's got shoulders like a mountain
and a smile like sunny day,
the patience of a gard'ner
and the will to find a way
A mind taht's strong and steady
and a heart that's good and true.
He's a pretty good man if you ask me.
His eyes are full of love
although his life has known its tears.
His soul is full of quite fire
taht warms us through the years.
His heart is full of faith (hope) and peace
and other things we need.
He's a pretty good man if you ask me.
Now his job may not be steady
with his name open the door,
but a dozen well-fed kids I know
seldom ask for more.
He remembers all our birthdays
with a hug and something nice,
and his lap is the sweetest place we know
to make the world seem right.
He's lot of fun in a ticklin' fight
and when the snow is deep,
he can calm a frightened animal
or rock a child to sleep
We love him more than tongue can tell
and more than song can sing.
He's a pretty good man if you ask me.
"Gonna Feel Much Better When You're Gone" From Album "I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again"
Tell it to a bear,judgin' at a fair
tell it to the leader of a cause;
tell it to the mayor,sittin' in a chair,
tell it to a jolly Santa Claus.
Tell it a fool, makin' up a rule,
tell it to a rabbitin a tree;
tell it to a mule, swimmin' in a pool,
tell it to a bubble in the sea.
But don't tell me about your troubles,
don't tell me about your tears,
don't tell me the worries that you know;
'cause I'm packing up my heartaches in your suitcase, honey dear,
and I'm gonna feel much better when you're gone.
Tell it to a frog, settin' on a log,
tell it to a berry in a pie;
tell it to a dog, barkin' at a hog,
tell it to a birdle in the sky.
Tell it to a goat, ridin' in a boat,
tell it to a drummer in a band;
tell it to a shoat, swimmin' in a moat,
tell it to a pebble in the sand.
But don't tell me about your troubles,
don't tell me about your tears,
don't tell me the worries that you know;
'cause I'm packing up my heartaches in your suitcase, honey dear,
and I'm gonna feel much better when you're gone.
England, Scotland, Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Canada, the USA and Australia
More photos from Buffy Sainte-Marie's tour for her latest CD/DVD, "Running for the Drum," accompanied by a hot 3-piece all-Aboriginal band from Winnipeg: Jesse Green, Mike Bruyere and Lee Constant. Check out photos taken on the road from their van, some from a surprise appearance at Winnipeg's Pyramid Club last November, stills from Arbor Live television on APTN, as well as some from the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards show televised last spring in Regina, Saskatchewan, which featured Buffy and her band with Red Bull and lots of traditional dancers.
The most recent photos are from the current "Running for the Drum" tour: England, Scotland, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Canada, the USA and Australia. Happy 2012!
I tippy-toe across your dream each night
so as not to wake you...
Asleep in your summer,
a garland of flowers
yellow and white around your waist.
While I walk these paths of ice
ice my breasts and strings of ice my hair.
My hands two hooks of steel.
Ice nose
Snow eyes
Frozen open pout.
Flakes of snow your bridal veils
I come down the soft white path
Bouquets of poppies
spilling from my heart.
"I Don't Need No City Life" From Album "Sweet America"
I don't need no city life
I don't need no town
Stay home with the one I love
Watch the sun go down
Watch the sun go down,Sweet Baby
Watch the sun go down
Watch the sun go down,Sweet Baby
Watch the sun go down
Ocean's full of fishes
Sky is full of stars
Baby, Baby I love you
Just the way you are
Just the way you are, Sweet Baby
Just the way you are
Just the way you are, Sweet Baby
Just the way you are
Fields are full of bumblebees
Meadows full of sheeps
Night is full of pretty little things
If my Baby keep me
company Sweet Baby
If you keep me company
keep me company Sweet Baby
If you keep me company
I don't need no city life
I don't need no town
Stay home with the one I love
Watch the sun go down
Watch the sun go down,Sweet Baby
Watch the sun go down
Watch the sun go down,Sweet Baby
Watch the sun go down
"T'es Pas Un Autre" (Buffy Sainte-Marie, French translation by Claude Gauthier) From Album "Fire & Fleet & Candlelight"
T'ES PAS UN AUTRE
T'es pas un autre, t'es un homme, mon homme à moi,
J'suis pas une autre, je suis ta femme, ta femme à toi,
Et cet amour qui voit le jour entre nos bras,
Restera nôtre jusqu'au jour où tu partiras.
Tu viens d'ailleurs, je suis jeudi, tu es dimanche,
J'aime les fleurs, tu aimes les pluies et les nuits blanches,
Tu m'es venu,d'ailleurs je ne t'attendais plus,
Et tu es moi jusqu'au jour où tu partiras.
Chorus:
Ne me demande pas comment
Ne me demande pas pourquoi
Dis-moi seulement je t'aime mon amour.
Ce grand amour qui se veut être le premier
Ce grand amour qui se veut être le dernier
Fragile aux pluies comme le coeur des saules-pleureurs
Pleurera à l'heure où tu partiras.
"A Soulful Shade of Blue" From Album "I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again"
Dressmaker, dressmaker
I'm singing at the hall next Saturday night and he'll be there
He's been gone for so long, I want him back again
Make me the sweetest dress you can
Make it a soulful shade of blue with a ribbon at the hem
A ribbon white for loyalty to show that I remember when
A soulful shade of blue, looked into my eyes
And tell him, I want him back again
Dressmaker, dressmaker
Don't make it loud or bright, just make it a sweet and gentle style
Then maybe he'll remember me it was not so long ago
I'll miss his sweet and gentle smile
Make it a soulful shade of blue with a ribbon at the hem
A ribbon white for loyalty to show that I remember when
A soulful shade of blue, looked into my eyes
And tell him, I want him back again
"Sweet Little Vera" From Album The Pathfinder - Buried Treasures (2010)
Hoo hoo Hoo hoo Hoo hoo
Sweet Little Vera You'll know her when you hear her
Sweet little prancer Rocknroll dancer
Ha va va va va va
Sweet little Vera not yet sixteen
She da kine, a rocknroll machine
Sweet Little Vera You'll know her when you hear her
Ha va va va va va
Sweet Little Vera You'll know her when you hear her
Ha va va va va va
Sweet little sister Heaven must've kissed her
Ha va va va va va
She's got a way that's bound to please
She go up on her toes then down on her knees
Sweet Little Vera You'll know her when you hear her
Ha va va va va va
"Qu'appelle Valley, Saskatchewan" (Buffy Sainte-Marie)From Album "Sweet America"
You can travel all alone
You can travel all alone
Or you can come along with me
Walk the old way
heyo ha heya
Wrap me in your blanket dance me around
Wrap me in your blanket dance me around
Take me back to where my heart belongs
Qu'Apelle Valley, ho Saskatchewan
Qu'Apelle Valley, ho Saskatchewan.
You can travel all alone
You can travel all alone
Or you can come along with me
Walk the old way
heyo ha heya.
Name: ‘Buffy Sainte-Marie’, Mander 1996 Type: Hybrid Tea, op
(previously classified as a Floribunda - changed in August 2003 - ) Parentage: 'June Laver' x 'Rubies ’n’ Pearls' Introduced: In Canada by Select Roses in 1996 and by Carl Pallek and Son Nurseries in 1998/99. Blooms: Blend of salmon, orange, yellow and pink with yellow centre. In clusters of 15-45 blooms, 25-30 petals, dia. 9 cm. It’s greatest asset is to exhibit single, disbudded blooms of 5.5 inches dia. which can easily win a trophy at any rose show. At the 2006 Vancouver Rose Society show ‘Buffy Sainte-Marie’ won "BEST H.T. in SHOW"(Queen in USA rose shows) Fragrance: Slight Foliage: Medium, dark green and semi glossy. Disease Resistance: Average to good. Winter Hardiness: Average, to zone 5. Plant Size: Extremely vigorous, lots of new basals, bushy and spreading growth to only 70-90 cm, (30-36 inches.) Flowering Period: Repeats until the first frost. Additional Notes: Only available in Canada.
One interesting note about the parents of this Hybrid Tea is that they are both Miniature roses and are the same parents as for 'Glowing Amber', 'Golden Beryl' and other minis of mine.
As both parents have a HT as their father, their offspring always gives me 20 to 30% big roses, mostly floribundas but occasionally a HT (see nicely coloured photo of 'unnamed HT'). As you can see in the different photos of this rose, it has a beautiful blend of orange/gold salmon/coral and pink-- with an orange/gold reverse and has between 20 to 30 petals. The blooms are 3 to 4" in dia. on sprays, and 5" or more when disbudded and grown as a single. The bush grows only about 30 to 40" high. I have counted 45 blooms per spray. When exhibited as a single Fl. I have won 4 trophies with it in the first 2 years. It's greatest asset is showing it single, disbudded.
It is also a good garden rose as the large sprays on mature bushes give an incredible display of colors, not all blooms opening at the same time. This rose prefers the cooler more moderate climates. This rose has a special story to it : It is named after the well known folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, who is a First Nations Canadian born in Saskatchewan. She grew up in the States and now lives in Hawaii. In the sixties and early seventies, she became well known for writing such songs as Universal Soldier, Until It's Time For You To Go, and Eagle Man/Changing Women. In the late seventies she made appearances on Sesame Street.
Accolades accumulated in the last two decades. An Oscar was won for her song : 'Up Where We Belong'. In France, she was awarded Best International Artist for her 1993 CD, Coincidence And Likely Stories. In her home province, the Saskatchewan Recording Industry Association gave her its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1995, she was inducted into the JUNO Hall of Fame, and in the late nineties she has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada. All this is only a fraction of her achievements.
TUCSON -- Outrage was the response to the news that Tucson schools has banned books, including "Rethinking Columbus," with an essay by award-winning Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko, who lives in Tucson, and works by Buffy Sainte Marie, Winona LaDuke, Leonard Peltier and Rigoberta Menchu.
The decision to ban Chicano and Native American books follows the 4 to 1 vote on Tuesday by the Tucson Unified School District board to succumb to the State of Arizona, and forbid Mexican American Studies, rather than fight the state decision.
The banned book, "Rethinking Columbus," includes work by many Native Americans, as Debbie Reese reports, the book includes:
Suzan Shown Harjo's "We Have No Reason to Celebrate" Buffy Sainte-Marie's "My Country, 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying"
Joseph Bruchac's "A Friend of the Indians"
Cornel Pewewardy's "A Barbie-Doll Pocahontas"
N. Scott Momaday's "The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee"
Michael Dorris's "Why I'm Not Thankful for Thanksgiving"
Leslie Marmon's "Ceremony"
Wendy Rose's "Three Thousand Dollar Death Song"
Winona LaDuke's "To the Women of the World: Our Future, Our Responsibility"
The now banned reading list of the Tucson schools' Mexican American Studies includes two books by Native American author Sherman Alexie and a book of poetry by O'odham poet Ofelia Zepeda. Read More
"My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying" is Buffy Sainte-Marie's statement-in-song about Indian affairs.
"My point in the song is that the American people haven't been given a fair share at learning the true history of the American Indian. They know neither the state of poverty that the Indians are in now nor how it got to be that way. I try to tell the side of the story that's left out of the history books, that can only be found in the documents, the archives and in the memories of the Indians themselves."
"Native North American Child" from Album "Native North American Child"
Who's got a head o' hair to match up with the raven?
Who's got the prairie sun in every smile?
Who's got good credit yet with ol' Mother Nature?
Who? Native North American Child.
Who's got the rhythm of the universe inside her?
Who taught the Pilgrims how to make it in the wild?
Who sings a forty-niner autumnal changes
Who? Native North American Child.
Sing about your ebony African queen.
Sing about your lily-white Lili Marleen.
Beauty by the bushel, but the girl of the hour
Is a Native North American prairie flower.
Seminole, Apache, Ute, Paiute, and Shoshone,
Navaho, Comanche, Hopi, Eskimo, Cree,
Tuscarora, Yaqui, Pima, Ponca, Oneida,
Native North American me!
Sing about your ebony African queen.
Sing about your lily-white Lili Marleen.
Beauty by the bushel, but the girl of the hour
Is a Native North American prairie flower.
Cherokee, Muskogee, Fox, and Passamaquoddy,
Winnebago, Haida, Mohawk, Saulteaux, and Sioux,
Chickasaw, Ojibwe, Cheyenne, Mi'kmaq, and Mandan,
Native North American you!
When I was little, I was a piano and crayons kind of kid, for solace and for fun. As a teenager I started painting and playing guitar. In the Sixties, I wrote songs and made lots of records, and painted whenever I could. Although I had used various electronic instruments in the Sixties and Seventies, for movie scoring and songwriting, in the Eighties I saw my first Fairlight, which is a computer intended for music, and I really loved it. It got me ready for the Macintosh, which was absolutely perfect for me (and every other artist lucky enough to have one).
My first Macintosh was a 128k machine which I upgraded to 512k the minute it became possible. I used it for music, word processing, and digital art. It was a black and white only computer at the time, but it kept me fascinated. When the Mac II came out in color, and I discovered PixelPaint, I began spending most of my time making digital paintings. I still like PixelPaint, although now I most often use Adobe Photoshop.
How does an artist make a digital painting?
The artistic process in digital art is very much the same as for making other kinds of paintings. We choose tools; we choose paints; we choose paper or canvas or other media; we have an idea; we start painting; the idea grows as we paint; we work on the painting until at some point we decide the painting is done.
Digital artists can use a mouse, but a lot of us also use a stylist (pen) with a pressure sensitive Wacom tablet. This tablet is attatched to the computer. When we draw on the tablet, the drawing shows up on the computer screen. If we have chosen to tell the computer that the stylist is to behave like a piece of chalk, or a pen, or a wet brush, it will. We can choose the shape of the brush, how wet or gooey the 'paint' is, whether the canvas is bumpy or smooth... whatever we want. We have 16 million colors to choose from, many of which are so luminescent they can't be accurately printed by traditional CMYK print methods. Painting on a computer monitor screen, is literally painting with light.
We also have the option of scanning in an image from outside the computer... a photo, or a sketch done with traditional tools; and we can then paint, manipulate, process, change, and further develop the image within the computer, watching our progress on the monitor.
If we later on decide to make reproductions of the original, we enter a new stage in the life of the painting whereby we make prints. Traditional painters may choose to go to a printer and come home with lithographs, color zeroxes, posters, or 35mm slides etc.. Digital painters have lots of choices available too, and printing devices range from real economical to very expensive. The paintings are transferred from my computer to a disk, and I can hand it to the printer this way; or I can modem the painting to the printer over the phone lines from my house in Hawaii. I work closely with the printer to get the final print the way I want it.
How long does it take to create a digital painting?
It takes about the same length of time as it takes to create any other kind of painting. That is, an artist who creates lots of work probably experiences prolific days and slower days. Inspiration and energy fluctuations aside, in my own case I'm now faster on my computer than I am with my traditional water-and-brushes set up, partly because of enthusiasm.
As in traditional artwork, sometimes I stop and then come back to a painting later and make changes I never would have thought of the first day. Sometimes I work on an image for months. Generally I work for about 6 hours, but I usually quit only because I have to go do something else, not because I want to. The key is in remaining just aloof enough from a painting so that you know when to stop.
Another time factor is output: proofing and printing. That is, getting your work out of the computer and onto paper and having it satisfy you. It can be time consuming and expensive. But that's true of anything about which an artist is particular. The time I save setting up and cleaning up probably balances out by the time I spend on output.
What attracts artists to the computer as a tool?
Sixteen million colors in your palette are hard for any artist, especially a beginner, to turn down. Once an artist explores the vast variety of tools and features available on the great programs, we're hooked. It's like owning your own art supply store. Extremely tantalizing to any artist's imagination. You never misplace or run out of brushes, paints, papers etc..
Another great convenience is certainly the setup-cleanup factor. When I am inspired to paint on my Mac, I walk over to the computer, sit down, turn on three switches, and I'm ready to paint. It takes me two minutes to go from doing something else to actually painting. If I'm interrupted, it's just a minor inconvenience, but not a disaster, because it's easy to get back where I was: that is, the paint has not changed consistency; the light has not moved. When I'm done, I click SAVE and I'm ready to quit and go back to doing something else. No cleaning up, washing brushes, protecting half-wet paintings from accidents.
Another attraction is the relationship between photography and painting. In an artist's mind these elements have always been able to merge. But in the old days, visual artists used to fall into two distinct categories: those of us who created images with cameras and those of us who applied stuff onto other stuff, with brushes or other tools. Few people did both. Digital art software has empowered both the painterly side of photographers, and the photographer side of painters. Digital imaging allows both groups to rise above the limitations of mess and clutter and mechanics, and apply our talents to creating images limited only by our imaginations.
Elder Brothers Ilfordchrome (Cibachrome) photograph, Edition 1/5. 73.5” x 90” An image of two young men who look like ghosts from 1880. They semi-appear amid a wild abstract background in rich metallic colors.
"Guess Who I Saw In Paris" From Album "Illuminations"
La da da da da da
La da da da da da
Guess who I saw in Paris
Guess who I saw in Paris
Standing in the street with his thumbs hooked in his belt
Standing with his thumbs hooked in his belt
Standing in the street with his thumbs hooked in his belt
Looking all of seventeen
Guess who invited him up to her room
Guess who made him some tea
Guess who got spaced with him, played his guitar
Guess who fell asleep on his arm
Guess who got lost in his eyes
Guess who kissed him goodnight
Guess who phoned me up this morning while I was still asleep
Not like waking up at all
La da da da da da
Been dreaming of
La da da da da da
La da da da da da
In a 1977 episode of Sesame Street, famous Cree singer Buffy Sainte-Marie explains breastfeeding to Big Bird, while feeding her baby.
In recent decades, however, those educational segments have been replaced with bottle feeding. Now, an increasing number of parents are calling for the return of breastfeeding to the popular children’s program, reported Jezebel.
“It would help normalize breastfeeding to a culture that has completely sexualized breastfeeding,” the blog Boobie Time explains.
So far, the online petition, “Bring breastfeeding back to Sesame Street,” has gathered more than 7,000 signatures. Its goal is 8,500. The petition clarifies the aim isn’t to remove images of bottle feeding from the show, but for breastfeeding to be shown as well. The petition states: “If we normalize breastfeeding in our community, especially with our children, we can help raise a generation of breastfeeders which will support our economy, make for healthier children and lessen the risk of breast cancer for many nursing mamas!”
Last year Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin issued a call to make nursing easier for mothers.
Dr. Benjamin’s initiative highlights the need for greater cultural support for nursing in the home, at work, and in everyday life. “One of the most highly effective preventive measures a mother can take to protect her child and her own health is to breast-feed,” Benjamin said.
Scientific studies have shown that breast milk helps bolster a child’s immune system, protects against obesity in babies, reduces the risk of seizures, pneumonia, diarrhea, ear infections and asthma. It is also correlated with a lowered risk of ovarian and breast cancer in mothers.
Many American women have been pushed away from their natural breast-feeding roots, according to federal officials. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius hit on this point in a report accompanying the surgeon general’s call to action, noting that, “for much of the last century, America’s mothers were given poor advice and were discouraged from breast-feeding, to the point that [it] became an unusual choice in this country.” That problem, said Rosebud Bear, the lactation counselor for the American Indian Health and Family Services center in Detroit, has been compounded for low-income women and those with less education—two more consequences of colonization that have tended to hit Native women disproportionately.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian is located in Washington, D.C. The Museum also operates the George Gustav Heye Center in New York City, and the National Museum of the American Indian Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, Md.
The National Museum of the American Indian is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere, past, present and future, through partnership with Native people and others. The museum works to support the continuance of culture, traditional values, and transitions in contemporary Native life.
The NMAI E-Newservice is a free service to news media serving Native America from the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. The NMAI E-Newservice provides articles, photographs and editorial for news outlets to use free of charge. Please credit the NMAI E-Newservice, or use bylines as provided. Kara Briggs, a Yakama and Snohomish journalist, is the editor. She owns Red Hummingbird Media Corp., which contracts with the National Museum of the American Indian to provide this service.
(Washington D.C. ) Buffy Sainte-Marie is musician and songwriter. She spoke and performed in the Rasmuson Theater at NMAI in March, 2008.(Photographer Katherine Fogden of the NMAI E-Newservice)
Academy Award winner Buffy Sainte-Marie’s audacious attitude to life on and off the stage has inspired people around the world for over four decades. Not one to rest on her accomplishments, Buffy Sainte-Marie has never stopped channelling her infinite musical and artistic creativity.
As one of the most spellbinding artists of our time, Buffy Sainte-Marie gracefully combines a high energy stage presence with cerebral songs that tell powerful stories. This rare and primal blend is a welcome joy to festivals and concert halls around the world.
"Song To A Seagull" From Album "Fire & Fleet & Candlelight" (Joni Mitchell)
Fly silly seabird
No dreams can possess you
No voices can blame you
For sun on your wings
My gentle relations
Have names they must call me
For loving the freedom
Of all flying things
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry
I came to the city
And lived like old Crusoe
On an island of noise
In a cobblestone sea
And the beaches were concrete
And the stars paid a light bill
And the blossoms hung false
On their store window trees
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry
Out of the city
And down to the seaside
To sun on my shoulders
And wind in my hair
But sandcastles crumble
And hunger is human
And humans are hungry
For worlds they can't share
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry
I call to a seagull
Who dives to the waters
And catches his silver-fine
Dinner alone
Crying where are the footprints
That danced on these beaches
And the hands that cast wishes
That sunk like a stone
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach Out of cry
Ananais, Ananais,
tell me what kind of man this Jesus is, my Lord.
Ananais, Ananais,
tell me what kind of man this Jesus is, my Lord.
You know He went to the sick and the sick they got well.
Tell me what kind of man this Jesus is, my Lord.
Ananais, Ananais,
tell me what kind of man this Jesus is, my Lord.
Ananais, Ananais,
tell me what kind of man this Jesus is, my Lord.
You know He went to the dead and the dead they did rise.
Tell me what kind of man Jesus is, my Lord.
Ananais, Ananais,
oh tell me what kind of man my Jesus is, my Lord.
Ananais, Ananais,
oh tell me what kind of man my Jesus is, my Lord.
You know He, He come to my heart and my heart opened up
oh tell me what kind of man Jesus is, my Lord.
Ananais, Ananais,
oh tell me what kind of man my Jesus is, my Lord.
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. It's My Way
"On The Banks of Red Roses" From Album "Many A Mile"
When I was a wee thing, I heard my mother say
That I was meant for rambling and would easy go astray
And before that I would work, I would rather sport and play
With my Johnny on the banks of red roses
On the banks of red roses, my love and I sat doon
He took out his tuning box to play his love a tune
In the middle of the tune, his love got up and cried
Oh Johnny, lovely Johnny, would you leave me?
So they walked and they talked until they came upon a cave
Where the night before her darling had spent digging on her grave
Aye, the night before her darling had spent digging on her grave
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of red roses
Oh no, oh no, cried she, that grave's not meant for me
Yes, oh yes, my darling, that your bridal bed shall be
Yes, oh yes, my darling, that your bridal bed shall be
And he's made her to lie down on red roses
And all on his way homeward, his heart was filled with fear
Every maid he came upon, he thought it was his dear
Yes, every maid he came upon, he thought it was his dear
Who he made to lie down on red roses
Seeds Of Brotherhood From Album Fire & Fleet & Candlelight
It's time to open your eyes
Take a look outside and all around
To North and South and up and down
The weather is right the time is here
There'll never be a better year
For brotherhood to take it's root
To bloom it's blossom to sprout it's shoot
Open, open, open your eyes
It's time to find the place to hoe
Find the place to plant your row
Where the seeds of love can grow and grow
Your heart's the perfect spot you know
It's time to clean your garden plot
Of sticks and stones and other old rot
Time to plant a brand new world
Where promises keep and paths unfurl
To young and old to boy and girl
To rich and poor to woman and man
To black and white and gold and tan
To big and little and fast and slow
Oh see how brotherhood can grow
Let the sun shine in your face
To everyone of every race
Article originally published at dailyrecord.com Written by Bill Nutt For NJ Press Media
She’s a folk artist, but she’s ventured into electronica and jazz. She’s written pop hits (“Until It’s Time for You to Go,” “Up Where We Belong”), but she’s had years when her songs never were played on the radio.
In a career that began in the early 1960s, Buffy Sainte-Marie has an eclectic catalog, while developing a passionate following. But she says that career happened organically, with little sense of planning.
“I just have a little camera in my head that kind of photographs my dreams and experiences,” she writes in an email. “You never know when you go to sleep what you’re going to dream about, and songwriting is like that for me.”
Sainte-Marie will bring her band to the Ukrainian American Cultural Center in Whippany Saturday night (Jan. 7) as part of the Splatter Concert series.
Sainte-Marie, a member of the Cree tribe, was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1941. From an early age, she knew she was meant to write songs.
“I’ve always loved to do it — better than Barbies or baseball,” she writes. “I saw a piano when I was 3, loved playing with it, had no lessons, and made up songs for the fun of it.”
By her late teens and early 20s, she was listening to a spectrum of music.
“I’ve always been grateful to be around real folk music in the early 1960s,” she writes. “What an inspiration to hear songs that have lasted for generations, touch on eternal human issues for subject matter, and have great memorable melodies.”
Around the middle of that decade, she was performing in Canada and the U.S. Sainte-Marie emerged around the same time as a number of Canadians, including Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen.
“I believe Canadians share a sense of appreciation of nature,” she writes.
Canadians also share “the common human thump of harsh winters and the patient waiting for spring,” she writes.
She adds Bruce Cockburn and k.d. lang to her list of favorite Canadian songwriters.
Throughout the course of several years, Sainte-Marie would combine socially conscious songs (such as “Universal Soldier,” later covered by Donovan) with appearances on “Sesame Street.”
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 7) WHERE: Ukrainian American Cultural Center, 60 N. Jefferson Road, Whippany TICKETS: $30 ($33 the day of the show); $5 ages 13 to 17; free for ages 12 and younger INFORMATION: 973-585-7175; www. kofc6100.org/FrDan0.htm
TWELVE months ago, the annual Woodford Folk Festival was almost wiped off the cultural map during the Queensland floods.
With torrential rain reducing attendance numbers by 20 per cent and sweeping away vital and expensive infrastructure, many thought that after 25 years the end had come for the much-loved but perennially debt-plagued signature event of the Queensland Folk Federation.
The Moreton Bay Regional Council emerged as the white knight, buying the200ha site on a 50-year leaseback deal to the festival, and the utopian, marvellously over-ambitious event between Christmas and New Year was back on for a 26th instalment. This time it incorporated the spin-off indigenous Festival of the Dreaming that had been postponed from its usual Queen's Birthday weekend timeslot because of the rebuilding.
Blessed with glorious weather, the punters returned, and despite pre-festival controversies over sponsorship and programming, many regulars ended up declaring it the best festival ever.
The symbolic earth mother of this rebirth proved to be the ageless polymath Buffy Sainte-Marie. In two blistering sets, the septuagenarian Canadian delivered an astonishing fusion of hard rock, protest folk, country and middle-of-the-road, all set against a compelling backdrop of Manitoban Native American chants.
In all, 65 Canadian artists (24 of them from Newfoundland) performed, with the sister duo Ennis being a standout, their tight vocal harmonies compensating for the intentional corniness of their between-song patter.
The world music component was led by barnstorming performances from Chinese-Mongolian band Hanggai, while Spanish cultures were well represented by the likes of singer-songwriter DePedro, guitarist Gerard Mapstone and singer Tania Balil's Candor Quebrao.
Gotye was an excellent choice as the headline act in the mainstage amphitheatre, providing an electric moment when his cover of Luiz Bonfa's Seville was unexpectedly revealed to be a source for the hit Somebody that I Used to Know.
Elsewhere, there was a head-spinning range of choice across 20 stages, workshops, street theatre, children's events, burlesque, freak shows, cultures and genres, while, as always, the spoken-word component of the festival covered political views that ranged from green to jade, teal and viridian.
In his public report at the close of the event, a relieved festival director Bill Hauritz announced that there would be "at least one more festival". It's a long way from the heady days when "500-year plans" were vaunted, but under the circumstances, the opportunity to do it one more time seems to be a minor miracle.
Woodford Folk Festival. December 27 to January 1.
Polymath and 1960s folk star Buffy Sainte-Marie delivered two blistering sets at the Woodford Folk Festival. Picture: Anthony Weate. Source: The Courier-Mail
Video: Take a look at the closing ceremony of Woodford Folk Festival.
Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan Leitch is one of 11 being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2012 class. Donovan, who was Britain’s answer to America’s Bob Dylan, had 12 top-40 hits between 1965 and 1969 in the United States; his style appealed to the counterculture and beatnik era.
The List this week looks at Donovan’s best top-10 songs.
10. Turquoise (1965) — This song was one of 40 songs on a portable jukebox owned by John Lennon. Donovan said he wrote the song about folk singer Joan Baez, who later recorded a version. The song bombed on the charts in the United Kingdom and the United States but has become a favorite among Donovan fans.
Your smile beams like sunlight, On a gull’s wing; and the leaves, Dance and play after you.
9. Atlantis (1968) — This idealistic song about the mythological Atlantis was a huge hit in Europe. Even though much of the song is spoken prose and not necessarily radio-friendly, the tune reached No. 7 in the U.S. It was on the B-side of “To Susan on the West Coast, Waiting.”
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind, Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new, Hail Atlantis!
8. Mellow Yellow (1966) — This Beatle-type song was Donovan’s second-biggest hit, reaching No. 2 in the U.S. and No. 8 the following year on the British charts. Ironically, Donovan helped with the lyrics of the Beatles song “Yellow Submarine,” also released in 1966.
I’m just mad about Saffron, Saffron’s mad about me, I’m just mad about Saffron, She’s just mad about me.
7. Sunshine Superman (1966) — At the height of the hippie subculture, Donovan scored his first and only No. 1 hit in the U.S. with this jaunty, and likely drug-induced, song, which later reached No. 2 on the British charts. It was the title track of Donovan’s third album, “Sunshine Superman.” The song was written for Donovan’s future wife Linda Lawrence. Jimmy Page played guitar on it.
Sunshine came softly through my a-window today, Could’ve tripped out easy a-but I’ve a-changed my ways.
6. To Try for the Sun (1966) — This delightful folk song was released as a single in the United States in January 1966. The song is about Donovan’s early days, when he traveled to Ives in Cornwall with his road buddy Gypsy Dave.
And who’s going to be the one, To say it was no good what we done? I dare a man to say I’m too young, For I’m going to try for the sun.
5. Hurdy Gurdy Man (1968) — This psychedelic rock song with an Indian influence reached No. 5 in the U.S. and No. 4 on the U.K. charts. On several concert recordings, Donovan tells the audience there is an additional verse written by Beatle George Harrison that was not part of the original single.
Down through all eternity, The crying of humanity. ‘Tis then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man, Comes singing songs of love.
4. Jennifer Juniper (1968) — This flower-power song was written about Jenny Boyd, the sister of Pattie Boyd, who married Beatle George Harrison. Donovan was dating Ms. Boyd when he and the Beatles visited the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India. The last verse of the song is sung in French.
Jennifer Juniper lives upon the hill, Jennifer Juniper, sitting very still, Is she sleeping? I don’t think so.
3. Brother Son, Sister Moon (1972) — This enchanting song was the title song for Franco Zeffirelli’s film on the life of St. Francis of Assisi, “Brother Son, Sister Moon.” Donovan wrote and sang all the songs in the film, but none of Donovan’s original recordings appeared on the soundtrack. In 2004, Donovan rerecorded all the songs exclusively for iTunes from the long out-of-print soundtrack with just his guitar.
Brother Sun and Sister Moon, I seldom see you seldom hear your tune, Preoccupied with selfish misery.
2. Universal Soldier (1965) — This anti-war folk song was written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie in 1964. Donovan recorded the song as part of an extended play album. It was never released as a single, but the EP reached No. 5 in the United Kingdom and later No. 23 on the Billboard charts.
He’s five foot-two, and he’s six feet-four, He fights with missiles and with spears. He’s all of thirty-one, and he’s only seventeen, He’s been a soldier for a thousand years.
1. Catch the Wind (1965) — This was Donovan’s first hit. It reached No. 4 in the United Kingdom and No. 23 in the United States. The song was rerecorded for Donovan’s first album, “What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid,” without the vocal echo and strings. The song has been used in many commercials and covered by numerous recording artists.
In the chilly hours and minutes, Of uncertainty, I want to be, In the warm hold of your loving mind.
Bonus track: To Sing for You (1965) — This delightful folk ballad is featured in a memorable scene in D.A. Pennebaker’s 1967 documentary “Don’t Look Back” about Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of England. Donovan sings the song for Mr. Dylan in a hotel room. “That’s a great song,” Mr. Dylan says. Donovan then asks Mr. Dylan to sing “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” which the American legend does in emphatic fashion, almost spitting it out.
When you’re feeling kind of lonesome in your mind, With a heartache following you so close behind, Call out to me as I ramble by, I’ll sing a song for you.
